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Today’s importance of media literacy

Local Columns

I’ll be the first to say that I, as a reporter, am not perfect. No one is. I can sometimes make mistakes in stories, both grammatical and factual. I can sometimes read a bill or a study too quickly and miss something important. If I get something wrong, I work as quickly as I can to send up a correction to my copy desk. Sometimes mistakes escape me and my copy desk. When you write as many words as I do in a week and you read as many words as my editors do, sometimes mistakes fall through the cracks. But when they are pointed out, we try to fix them. I believe the same goes for my ...

Remembering all of our American history

Editorials

Black History Month 2026 offers a chance to look at the impact Black Americans have made on our lives, and a special chance to reflect on an event that has been a part of the nation’s calendar for 100 years. “A Century of Black History Commemoration” is the theme that has been selected this year by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the founders of Black History Month. It’s a wide-ranging topic, and one that puts the focus on how the commemoration of Black history has evolved during the past 100 years, and the impact it has had on the status of ...

Life on the frontier could be tough

Local Columns

It’s going to snow — a lot … Our ancestors did not have the advantage of modern weather warning systems to prepare for things like bitter, raw, sub-zero temperatures, blizzards and ice storms. The Upper Ohio Valley was settled during some of the coldest winters of the Little Ice Age. The wintry weather that could be remembered might have been blended from the stories told in front of a hearth with a roaring fire and a black bake kettle and a bean pot, from a forbear of my mother’s side of the family. It was a time when youngsters were put to sleep in their feather beds to ...

Odds and ends to wrap up the month

Local Columns

Just a few thoughts to end out the week, and the month, as we all try to do whatever we can to take our minds of the ongoing frigid temperatures. •••••• It came down to the last few days, but many of the races set to go on our local ballots have started to fill up. As of Friday morning, there were four candidates for three seats on the Brooke County school board and two candidates for Brooke Commission. Three (Two Republicans and one Democrat) have stepped up for the Hancock County Commission race, with eight now vying for one of the three seats on the Hancock County ...

Having to say goodbye never gets easier

Local Columns

There is a silence unlike any other when a certain heartbeat stops. It is a specific kind of quiet. One that seems to settle into the floorboards. And it remains a part of our home forever. It is a quiet so heavy that it feels as if it has its very own weight to it. How can air feel so heavy? We tell ourselves when we bring them home — those tumbling little balls of fur who trip over their own paws — that we are ready for the end. We tell ourselves that we understand the math. We convince ourselves that we realize there is not a lot of time when it comes to the life ...

Trains are beautiful, but respect the tracks

Local Columns

Here are words you would rarely put together: railroad safety and the Public Service Commission of West Virginia. Yet, when it comes to keeping rails safe and clear in the Mountain State, those duties fall to our Commission. And the center of that work is Operation Lifesaver. For more than three decades, the PSC has been a partner of Operation Lifesaver, a national nonprofit focused on rail safety education. Together with us, they raise safety awareness and strive to reduce accidents at rail crossings. That dedication starts at the top. The head of our railroad division was ...